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Former Fox News Producter for Sean Hannity Jack Hanick Indicted for Helping Russia


As the US increasingly pursues some of the Kremlin’s business, the latest person arrested for violating US sanctions on Russia is getting less attention because of his ties to Vladimir Putin. His former relationship with Sean Hannity – he was a former Fox News producer has left. to launch a Russian propaganda network.

The Justice Department on Thursday revealed that Jack Hanick was quietly arrested in London on February 3 for evading US sanctions by helping a sanctioned Russian oligarch, Konstantin Malofeyev, started the right-wing television program Tsargrad.

DOJ also blocks a grand jury indictment against him, accusing Hanick of knowingly engaging in business dealings with Malofeyev, who was officially sanctioned by the US government for his role in funding Russian-backed troops in eastern Ukraine, who have been violently trying to secede from the democratic country since 2014.

The indictment also alleges Hanick lied to FBI agents about his travels to Greece and Bulgaria to expand his television network in 2015 and 2016, when he was interviewed by U.S. investigators. last year in New York City.

Federal agents insist that many damning details of Hanick’s Kremlin adventures were presented in an unpublished memoir he kept in his email account.

Malofeyev was sanctioned by the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control in December 2014 for funding separatists in the Donbas region of southeastern Ukraine.

Russian-aligned fighter jets there were operating with the covert help of that country’s military and using that government’s weapons when they shot down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, killing 283 passengers and 15 crew members.

Malofeyev (also spelled in the West as Malofeev) started an Orthodox Christian network called Tsargrad TV. In 2020, he founded a similarly named right-wing political group in Russia with imperialist leanings that – like the National Rifle Association in the US – pressured politicians to comply. conservative way.

Based on Warsaw Institutea geopolitical consulting organization based in Poland, “Tsargrad” will examine political candidates’ adherence to the “traditional family, religious and cultural values ​​of the people.” Russia”.

Financial Times in 2015 analyzed how Malofeyev delivered his “conservative yet modern twist on global news” in an attempt to mimic the rise of Fox News. Then in 2018, the online news site Salon called for Hanick to join the Russian activism, noting that he had previously served as Hannity’s director at Fox News.

Hanick started working at Fox News when it first launched in 1996. Fifteen years later, in 2011, he left. Three years later, he joined Malofeyev’s Russian-language propaganda force. The Department of Justice now wants to extradite him from the UK to New York City.

Damian Williams, the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan, issued a statement noting that the sanctions “prohibit US citizens from doing or doing business with Malofeyev but alleged that Hanick violated the orders.” punish that by working directly for Malofeyev on numerous television projects over the course of several years.”

Williams noted that the indictment underscores his office’s “commitment to enforcing laws that impede those who would use their assets to undermine fundamental democratic processes. This office will continue to be at the forefront of the Justice Department’s work to hold parties accountable who will support blatant and unjustified acts of war. “



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